382 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



shore. Thus, more than four-fifths of the peat bogs in 

 the State appear to lie beyond the limits of this peculiar 

 industry. Although the cultivation of the cranberry seems 

 to be thus restricted, it appears to be an open question 

 whether other crops which tolerate a wider range of climate 

 may not be grown under somewhat similar conditions of 

 culture as the cranberry. It is well known that in the 

 preparation of a bog for cranberry planting, it is the custom 

 to cover the surface of the peat to the depth of about half a 

 foot with a layer of sand, preferably such as may be obtained 

 from a sea beach. In this sand the plants are inserted to 

 such a depth that their roots find it easy to feed in the 

 underlying vegetable matter. Experience, however, shows 

 that the plants will flourish and bear good crops where their 

 roots lie altogether in ordinarily fertile soil, provided the 

 lower part of the layer is kept permanently in a well- 

 moistened state. Although this plant is characteristically a 

 tenant of the marshes, the principal need seems to be per- 

 manent moisture rather than any fertilizing effects which the 

 layer of pure peat affords. Substantially the same con- 

 ditions are required by a large number of our other economic 

 plants. Some of the most successful market gardens of this 

 Commonwealth and of other districts along the Atlantic 

 coast lie in fields which were originally in the state of 

 sloping or shallow bogs, and owe much of their fertility to 

 the fact that permanent moisture is found in a zone at no 

 great depth below the surface. 



The foregoing considerations lead me to suggest that our 

 deep peat bogs may afford valuable fields for that important 

 form of intensive agriculture known as market gardening. 

 At first sight the great cost which is necessarily incurred in 

 the preparation of such ground for planting may seem to be 

 an insuperable hindrance to the use of these areas in this 

 kind of tillage. On examination, however, this appears to 

 be a matter of slight moment. A very large part of the 

 existing gardens are upon land which is valued at a price 

 much greater than the cost which would be incurred in 

 improving similar areas of bog soil. Moreover, the cost of 

 preparing such ground for garden purposes would be far 

 less than that required to make it fit for cranberry planta- 



